The Baby Project
by cheysiu
Summary: Rocky Blue is a good student, maybe the best student. It's totally fine with her when she doesn't have anyone to partner up with for a group project in home economics; she's secretly thankful that she'll have total control over everything. Yep, everything was going swimmingly until CeCe Jones walked in the door. Full summary in Chapter 1.
1. Chapter 1

Rocky Blue is a good student, maybe the best student. It's totally fine with her when she doesn't have anyone to partner up with for a group project in home economics; she's secretly thankful that she'll have total control over everything. Yep, everything was going swimmingly until CeCe Jones walked in the door.

Rocky and CeCe are paired together for the dreadful sugar baby project. How well can they work together?

Things to know:

Rocky and CeCe don't really know each other.

Rocky and CeCe are not neighbors.

Rocky is not a dancer.

Potential for romance and pairings in later chapters. Express your opinions in the reviews to let me know what you want to see. Options are Reuce, GeCe, Cy and ReCe.

Story begins in next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

Rocky's daily routine never changed. It never changed because she never let it change, because her routine worked. She got up at the same time every morning. No matter how she felt, she pushed herself out of bed. She went for a run, even if she didn't feel like it. She took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, kissed her mom on the cheek and arrived at the bus stop at 7:20 every morning to catch the 7:25 bus to school.

Her life ran like clockwork. She was never late and she never forgot anything. Chaos was not a word in her vocabulary.

Monday had been a day just like this. Monday was the day that everything changed.

At 8:00 on the dot (Rocky secretly loved that school started at precisely 8:00, not 7:50 or 8:05, but exactly 8:00), the bell rang for the start of first period. Rocky, of course, was already in her seat at the front of the class with her notebook out and homework ready to turn in. Mrs. Green, her home economics teacher, made her way to the front of the class, where Rocky had already noticed that her large project table was towering with five-pound bags of sugar. It wasn't unusual to come into Mrs. Green's class and discover such things because she was always coming up with creative projects for the class to work on.

"All right," Mrs. Green said, starting to hand out thick instruction packets. "Today we will begin the project I was hinting about last week — everyone will find a partner and I'll adopt a sugar baby out to you. You'll have the sugar baby for four weeks, during which time you must care for the baby, make sure it doesn't get injured, and keep a journal about the challenges you've faced." She paused as everyone in the room groaned. "Yes, yes, I know. Just be thankful the school doesn't have the budget for those mechanical ones that can wake you in the night. Honestly, I'm doing you a favor. Okay, team up!"

The room instantly turned to chaos as the popular girls flung themselves at the popular guys, the two-girls-Rocky-thought-might-be-dating giggled at one another, and everyone else sort of relented to their nearby choices. Rocky hated picking project partners because she wasn't outspoken or forceful enough, and like always, she found herself staring sort of hopelessly at Mrs. Green like a floundering fish.

"Rocky," she sighed, trying to keep a smile on her face. She rested her hand on her shoulder. "Care to take a stab at single motherhood?" She lowered her voice and added, "I'll give you extra points for your trouble."

Rocky didn't know what to do except shrug and say, "Yeah, sure." Actually, being allowed to do the project alone would be okay; she wouldn't have to deal with a lame partner who just sat by while she did all the work.

Mrs. Green opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by someone bursting frantically through the door.

"Ah! Sorry, Mrs. Green, I overslept and - are we baking today?" The newcomer's eyes scanned the sugar bag table as she whipped her bangs out of her face. CeCe Jones had to be one of the coolest kids in school, but not in a captain-of-the-cheerleading-squad kind of way. It was more of a C-plus-average-I-dance-on-television kind of way, and although Rocky hadn't actually interacted with CeCe very much, she felt a little uneasy. After all, CeCe was routinely late for school, looked like she got dressed out of Goodwill's dumpsters, and was dating the crazy, sparkly foreign exchange student. If someone looked up "chaos" in the dictionary, CeCe's picture would probably be right next to it.

"CeCe Jones!" Mrs. Green bellowed cheerfully. "You're just in time. We were just picking partners for our next project."

"Awesome," CeCe replied, slinging her backpack onto the floor by an empty desk.

"It seems everyone's gotten a partner already," Mrs. Green continued, "except Rocky."

"Yeah, sure." CeCe smiled towards her classmate, and Rocky suddenly realized what was happening. "What's the project?"

In reply, Mrs. Green lifted one of the five pound bags from the table and cradled it into CeCe's arms. "Congratulations, you're both mothers."

Rocky wanted to melt under her desk, and found herself sliding as far down as she could while CeCe stared wide-eyed at her teacher.

"Excuse me?" CeCe managed to say, blinking her long bangs out of her brown eyes again.

"All the instructions are here," Mrs. Green answered, handing CeCe her copy of the instruction packet. "So I'll just leave you to it."

Mrs. Green picked up another baby and carried it to the other end of the classroom where the head cheerleader and the basketball captain were groping one another.

"Um, I missed something, didn't I?" CeCe asked, slowly sinking into her seat.

Rocky couldn't speak. She just stared down at the paper in front of her, heart racing. The downfall of their project was already rushing through her mind. Why did CeCe have to arrive at that moment? Rocky had been home-free as far as control over her project had been, and then this had happened. A wrench thrown into her perfect comfort.

"Let's um, it says the first thing we should do is open the attached envelope," Rocky read quietly from the paper. Indeed, a small envelope had been taped to the sugar baby's bottom. "And find out the s-sex..." Rocky swallowed hard and continued.

Rocky looked up timidly to find CeCe grinning wolfishly back at her, her blue-eyeliner accented eyes squinting jovially.

"Rocky Blue," CeCe said, gently resting the sugar sack on her knee. "Do you have a problem saying the word sex?"

Just then, Rocky was swallowed up to her eyeballs in reddening heat as CeCe Jones barked in laughter.

—

Because it was the first day of the sugar baby project, and because the class period had been mostly taken up with discussing rules and procedures, Mrs. Green let everyone put their sugar bags in their backpacks and not worry about suffocation or anything like that until they got home and were able to completely finish "birthing" their children. According to Mrs. Green's instructions, that meant naming, clothing, and creating the baby's hair, eyes, mouth, and other features, in addition to beginning to consider the baby's personality and other attributes.

Again, this would've been all fine and wonderful if Rocky were doing this by herself. She'd just get a few markers and be done with it. But she wasn't. No, instead she'd had a very awkward conversation with a cool girl she hardly knew after Mrs. Green had announced that the class period was almost up.

"I can finish this when I get home," Rocky had offered.

"Not by yourself," CeCe had replied, flipping her curly hair and looking hurt somehow. "You think you get to make all our baby's choices?"

The fact that CeCe had said "our baby" made Rocky choke on her tongue.

"Well, I just didn't want… to like, inconvenience you?" Rocky had replied, knowing it was a ridiculous answer.

"I know it's awfully soon to meet your parents," CeCe had said absolutely stone-faced, "but we do have a baby together."

Rocky would really need CeCe to stop saying things like that if she expected to survive the next four weeks.

CeCe had dance practice after school, but she promised to cut it short and head over to Rocky's as soon as possible. That had required Rocky telling CeCe her address, which she had temporarily forgotten for some reason and of course sent CeCe into knee-bending hysteria. At least CeCe was proving not to be the moody, rude, snob Rocky thought all popular girls were supposed to be.

When Rocky walked in the door, she was greeted by her mother who was passing by with the laundry. Out of habit she gave her a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek, and her mom told her there were homemade cookies in the kitchen for a snack.

Surprisingly, her brother and his friends weren't gathered around the kitchen island snickering at one another, though it was apparent they had been there if the plate smeared with cookie crumbs told her anything. Luckily, her mom always made enough for an army, so another plate remained, piled high with chocolate chip cookies. She poured herself some milk and grabbed a few of them with a napkin.

At the dining room table, Rocky began unloading her schoolwork, including the sugar baby. She'd been reviewing the instructions again when her mom passed through.

"What is that sugar doing on the table?" she asked. "I thought I'd put it all away." She was just starting to pick up the baby when Rocky yelped at her suddenly.

"Ah, no, Mom! Don't!" Mrs. Blue stared at her daughter, clearly taken aback. "I mean… sorry, but that's for a school project."

"Oh," her mom replied, a smile returning to her face. "Sorry, baby. What are you working on?"

Rocky fingered the thick paper flap at the top of the sugar bag. "Well, it's a baby," she answered simply.

"Oh, the sugar baby!" her mom said, perhaps a little too excitedly. "I heard from one of the other moms that the project was coming up. How exciting! You get to take care of a baby!"

Now that she thought about it, Rocky had already taken care of plenty of babies, as she had three younger cousins. So this project was either going to be super easy or super irritating, she wasn't yet sure which.

"Yeah. Well, I've got someone coming over soon to help me… design… the baby. So…"

"Oh, good," her mom said with some relief. "You're not a single mom. Oh gosh, I'm a grandmother!"

Maybe Rocky's mom needed to be partners with CeCe instead, seeing as how much more excited and crazy the two of them seemed to be about the whole thing.

"Moooom," Rocky whined, just as there was a knock on the door. She froze. "Oh gosh!"

"I'll get it!" Mrs. Blue practically sang, and Rocky didn't have time to stop her from rushing out to the door. A deep sinking feeling seeped through her chest as she realized the effect CeCe Jones was about to have on her clean-cut household.

Rocky had barely made it to the entryway as her mother opened the door. Though Mrs. Blue was very good at going with the flow without letting on to anyone that anything ever threw her off guard, Rocky did detect a slight twitch in her eye upon seeing CeCe filling her front doorway.

"Hello," she greeted kindly, but with slight hesitancy. It occurred to Rocky that she probably feared this was one of Ty's crushes or something.

"Mom, this is CeCe," Rocky rushed in, practically pushing her mother out of the way. "She's working on the project with me."

It was obvious that Mrs. Blue couldn't decide if this was better or worse news.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," CeCe said, putting out her hand. Mrs. Blue took it, smiling.

"Well, I'll leave you girls to your project. I can't wait to see what you come up with!" Rocky's mom picked up her laundry basket and headed up the stairs.

For three seconds, the girls stood awkwardly in the entryway before Rocky remembered she should invite CeCe in.

"Um, we could work in the dining room, maybe? The table's pretty big so we'll have lots of space."

"Lead the way," CeCe replied, hefting her backpack up onto her shoulder.

Rocky showed CeCe to the dining room, telling her to make herself at home. CeCe dropped her backpack and started to take off her jacket, but not without examining the formally decorated room at length.

"Would you like something to drink?" Rocky asked. "We've got, uh, milk, water… possibly soda, but if we do it's caffeine-free." The options sounded pretty horrible considering CeCe was probably used to injecting coffee straight into her veins or something.

"I'll take my chances with the soda," CeCe answered. "Thanks."

Rocky hurried to the kitchen, not wanting to make her guest wait too long. Luckily, they did have soda, but it was the last one, so she hoped her mom would understand since she was really the only one who drank it. She grabbed the milk she'd poured herself earlier and just grabbed the rest of the cookies that were left on the counter, balancing everything on a tray before heading back to the dining room.

"Um, I brought cookies," Rocky said as her reintroduction to the room. CeCe was just getting out her beat up notebook and folders.

"You didn't say there'd be cookies!" CeCe teased, though Rocky didn't take it as a joke at first.

"Uh, yeah, my Mom makes them for us sometimes. We're lucky any were left." She put the plate down in the center of the table and CeCe carefully took one. It wasn't until that moment that Rocky noticed CeCe's nails were covered in chipping purple nail polish.

"What should we do first?" CeCe asked, biting into her cookie. Crumbs tumbled down the front of her dance t-shirt, but Rocky seemed to be the only one who noticed. "I guess we should open the envelope," she added, shoving the rest of the cookie into her mouth before carefully pulling the green envelope from the bottom of the sugar bag.

"Gah, I'm so nervous!" Rocky replied, genuinely wringing her hands together.

CeCe gave her a puzzled look. "I can't imagine why," she said honestly.

"What if it's got like, I don't know, diabetes or something!"

CeCe's fingers stilled over the half-open envelope. "What? Rocky, babies don't get diabetes."

"I'm pretty sure they do!"

"Rocky, he's made of sugar!"

"See why I'm worried?!"

CeCe sort of stared at her for a long moment and Rocky realized she was maybe being a little neurotic. Not only that, but she'd promised herself that she'd try to be more cool about things, not because she cared about being considered "cool," but rather because she knew CeCe's somewhat disorganized self would drive her to a panic attack before the end of the first week if she didn't. She took a deep breath.

"Sorry," she apologized, her voice much more even. "I get a little stressed out by group projects."

CeCe smiled kindly. "Don't worry about it, bro. Everything's gonna be fine."

Even though CeCe was saying it, Rocky didn't feel so sure.

"Okay, see, this is fine," CeCe said, pulling an index card out of the envelope. "Male, normal weight at birth, does not have diabetes."

CeCe flipped the card so Rocky could see it and for a half-second she expected it to literally say "does not have diabetes" on it. She sighed with relief.

"Okay, next step," she said, referencing Mrs. Green's instructions. "Dress, design, and name your baby."

"Excellent," CeCe replied. "This is gonna be the best part." She started pulling pens and pencils out of her backpack, though it really just amounted to two highlighters (pink and green, unfortunately) and a blue Sharpie.

"I've got some colored pencils," Rocky said, pulling some out of her backpack. "We can probably find other things too as we think of them. My mom does lots of crafts."

"Cool," CeCe replied, uncapping the Sharpie. She squinted at the sugar sack like Rocky imagined Michelangelo probably had at slabs of marble.

Just then, because the Blue house almost literally couldn't go twenty minutes without someone interrupting someone else, the two were joined by Rocky's five year old cousin galloping into the room.

"When did you get here Amy?" Rocky questioned, trying to mask her annoyance.

"After school. Ty is babysitting me today. What are you doing?" Amy asked, squeezing between the two girls.

"Amy, please, go play upstairs or something. We're trying to study!"

"No, you're not, you're coloring."

Rocky wanted to protest, but CeCe had just started drawing eyes on the sugar sack.

"We're not coloring, we're-"

"What color eyes should the baby have?" CeCe wondered out loud, presumably to no one in particular.

"I have lots of colors! I'll go get them!" Amy declared, and without invitation she ran out and up to the playroom.

"Great, she's gonna bug us all afternoon now," Rocky grumbled.

"She's cute," CeCe replied. "Besides, I just have this Sharpie, that's no good."

Rocky watched as CeCe added curving eyelashes, which actually looked pretty good. Rocky couldn't draw to save her life, so she was happy to let CeCe take over on that front.

"Rocky! Did you take all the cookies out of the kitchen? Auntie says you have to share!"

Mikey, Rocky's 11 year old cousin, came storming into the dining room like a whirlwind. Immediately, he reached around his cousin in an attempt to get at the cookie plate that still sat in the middle of the table.

"Mikey, stop! You guys already devoured half of them earlier, these are for us!"

"Auntieeeee!"

"Oh my gosh, Mikey, okay!" Rocky stood up and started pulling cookies off the plate and onto one of the napkins she'd brought. "At least leave us a couple."

"Mikey, did you find Rocky? I don't know what she's thinking-"

Seventeen year old Ty had now appeared at the doorway, his arms crossed. He'd stopped mid-sentence as soon as he'd seen CeCe.

"Calm down!" Rocky replied, shoving the plate into her cousin's chest. "Can't we just do some work in peace around here? You're all making me crazy!"

Mikey, with absolute glee on his face and cookies almost literally in his heart, ducked around his older cousin and raced down the hall.

"Rocky," Ty said, his tone changing dramatically. "You didn't tell me you had someone over. You also didn't tell me you knew CeCe Jones." He smiled sweetly and played with the collar of his shirt.

At the sound of her name, CeCe looked up from her drawing, which now included a cartoonish smile. She flicked her bangs out of her face and smiled politely.

"Hi," she said, which seemed to be a relatively disappointing reaction to Ty. Rocky knew what he was doing though and couldn't forget how girl-crazy he'd been lately. Anything less than a kiss from a girl seemed to be disappointing if recent overheard conversations with his friends had been any indication.

"Would you go away?" Rocky practically bellowed. "We're working."

"Let me know if you need any help," Ty offered, smirking at CeCe. "I'm always helping Rocky with her homework."

Firstly, that wasn't true and Ty had gotten a B- in home economics if she hadn't been mistaken. Secondly, she definitely wasn't going to ask him for anything now for the rest of her life.

"She doesn't need you, Ty, because I'm helping." Amy had returned with an armful of art supplies that Rocky wasn't even aware she had.

"I brought some paper and scissors and glue," she said. "Also, glitter."

"Yes, glitter!" CeCe replied, and Ty scowled at the fact that CeCe had reacted more enthusiastically to his five year old cousin than to him. "We could do a little glam rock thing with this kid or something."

Rocky didn't know what the heck that would entail, but she'd just about had it.

"Would everyone get out RIGHT. NOW. Mom!"

"Why is everyone yelling?" Finally, a voice of reason had heard her cries and come to her rescue: Dad.

"Dad, everyone is bugging us."

"Okay, everyone leave these girls to do their homework, okay?" Thankfully, Ty knew not to cross his dad and slinked out past him.

"Amy…" Mr. Blue warned.

"She can stay," CeCe replied. "She's helping me pick a hair color and I value her opinion."

Both Rocky and her father glared at CeCe, who had both yellow and pink construction paper in her hands, while Amy sorted through a thick stack, pulling out more choices every once in awhile.

"Okay, but you've got fifteen minutes before you have to come help Auntie with dinner."

"Okay," Amy replied without looking up at him. She was too busy accordion-folding some green paper and cutting it into long strips. Mr. Blue left and Rocky narrowed her brow at CeCe and her cousin.

"What's that for?" She asked.

"It's his hair," Amy said matter-of-factly. She started testing different lengths on the sugar sack.

"No, no, no, no, no," Rocky replied, irritated. "Babies don't have green hair."

"They could!" she protested. She reached for some glue.

"Amy…" Rocky warned. She could feel her jaw tightening, even more so because she glanced up to CeCe for some support, but instead found her classmate sorting through glitter pens, which made her feel even more uneasy.

At this point, both CeCe and Amy had started drawing on the sugar baby, essentially ripping all control out of Rocky's hands. If the shortness of breath she was feeling was any indication, she was probably moments from her mom driving her to the hospital for treatment of a heart attack.

She watched in horror for several minutes as strands of the crinkly green hair were applied, to which CeCe added several straight blonde pieces. The face had made it to a basic features outline before Rocky's mother could be heard calling Amy.

"Amy! Please come help with dinner now!"

Rocky hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until that very moment. She let out a giant sigh as Amy left the room. She wanted so badly to ask CeCe if she thought the glue had dried completely yet and whether they could get those green pieces off without ripping the bag open, but CeCe had begun what could only be called styling the sugar baby's hair. Maybe distracting her from the designing would help her regain a little bit of control.

"Okay, so. What're we gonna name this kid?" she asked, trying to sound casual but failing miserably.

"Hmm, good question." CeCe didn't look up as she glued a tiny rhinestone to the baby's earlobe. Rocky reminded herself to breathe evenly.

"Right. Well, I like Charlie," Rocky offered.

CeCe sort of huffed. "Charlie? Boring. I was thinking like, Ziggy Stardust." CeCe flashed her hands in front of her as if describing the vastness of the universe.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Your cousin left a glitter pen, I can just draw a lightning bolt across one eye…"

"You'll do no such thing!" Rocky yelped, finally losing it and knocking the pen out of CeCe's hand. "Our baby isn't a 70s glam rocker."

CeCe pursed her lips. "Come on, Rocky. It's gotta be something catchy. Give him some character, you know? I know! Bocephus!"

Rocky glared at CeCe. What was she even talking about? Bocephus? Was their baby some kind of backwoods banjo player? What?

"Absolutely not," Rocky said sternly, crossing her arms. "Kids are gonna make fun of him at school!"

"Rocky, just how long do you think we're gonna have this kid? We're not sending him to college!"

And suddenly, Rocky felt really sheepish and ridiculous. She'd let her petty emotions get to her and she knew it.

"Sorry," she said in a more rational tone. "I get worked up sometimes."

'I get worked up sometimes if I feel like things are getting out of my control' would've been the complete thought, but she was definitely too embarrassed to say that to CeCe.

CeCe considered her a moment, then smiled. "It's okay, I understand. Oh man, look at the time. I gotta go if I wanna make it home for dinner. Sorry to leave all this…"

"Don't worry about it," Rocky replied, actually relieved that she'd have something to do herself. "I'll clean all this up. You want me to finish it, or…"

"Do whatever you want," CeCe reassured. "I'll be cool with whatever you do. Again, sorry to leave your dinner table a disaster."

Rocky could only manage to nod because she'd been left speechless from embarrassment. That and something about the way CeCe Jones picked up her backpack, slung it onto her back, and ran her fingers through her hair made Rocky's insides seize up. CeCe was definitely way out of Rocky's friendship league.

 **Don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Rocky was almost too embarrassed to walk into class carrying Bocephus. She slipped into class and tried to hide the glitter-drenched sugar baby behind some books at her table.

Mrs. Green picked up on it immediately, of course.

"Ooh, Rocky! Did you finish getting your baby ready? Can I see?"

Of course, Rocky couldn't refuse her teacher and she'd inevitably be seeing Bocephus over the next four weeks, so she reluctantly pulled the sugar baby out where she could see him. A huge smile immediately filled Mrs. Green's face.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, poking at Bocephus' weirdly colored hair. "I did not expect that. Great job, Rocky. He's incredible."

Rocky was in shock. So much in shock that all she could manage to say back to her was, "His name is Bocephus. CeCe named him."

Mrs. Green shook her head, apparently in disbelief. "You ladies are doing an awesome job so far," she replied. "Keep it up."

She wandered off and Rocky felt more than just a little bit relieved. Glancing around, she figured out why she was so happy about it; regardless of Mrs. Green's personal style tastes for babies, she had to also be glad that Bocephus was just overall better executed than almost everyone else's sugar baby. Many of the class's babies merely had marker drawn faces, maybe with some crayon hair if they were lucky. Other than the girl who had glued colored cotton balls to her sugar sack for hair, not many people had gone beyond basic drawing.

When CeCe arrived to class (remarkably on time), she couldn't help beaming at Bocephus as soon as she saw him.

"Hey, Bo," CeCe said directly to the sugar sack. "Hope you had a good night with Mommy."

Rocky kind of cringed at the thought of anyone calling her Mommy.

"Um, what are you then?" Rocky asked, sort of fearing the answer.

"Mama," CeCe replied easily. "Oh man, Bo is so cool, I can hardly stand it."

To Rocky, Bo looked like he'd met with an explosion at a glitter factory, but again she felt it was better than a boring marker drawing.

"Good morning, everyone," Mrs. Green greeted as soon as the bell rang. "Now, today we need to talk about a few things. Schedules, for one. Remember that you need to log when each of you has your sugar baby in your group. It needs to be as fair as possible. Do not forget that if you go somewhere your baby either goes with you, goes to your partner, or you need to arrange babysitting."

Rocky was dutifully writing down everything Mrs. Green said. After making a few more points, she let them work independently for awhile.

"I've got church each Sunday," Rocky said, getting out a ruler to create a calendar. "I probably can't take Bo with me."

Actually, she could have, she just didn't want to. Talk about embarrassing.

"That's cool," CeCe replied. "You can drop him off with me on Saturday night. Oh! But Saturdays I'm a regular back up dancer at the Lion House, so…"

The Lion House was a kind of hang out place for teenagers something akin to a bar but without all the alcohol of course.

"Okay, how late does that usually go?" Rocky asked.

"Like ten or eleven," CeCe replied.

Rocky stared. "We get up pretty early for church, I can't be out at eleven taking Bo to you."

"You could bring him before the show?" CeCe suggested.

"But who's gonna watch him while you're on stage?" Rocky asked, panic starting to rise in her chest. She didn't completely like the idea of Bo sitting around somewhere on stage with musical equipment and dancers just waiting to be knocked over and destroyed.

"Hmm," CeCe hummed, thinking. "Oh! My mom will totally watch him. Just take him to my house whenever."

Rocky let out a breath. "Okay, good. Make sure you double-check with her."

"Gotcha."

Rocky felt a little anxious that CeCe wasn't writing any of this down. Unfortunately, the bell rang before she could express any further concerns.

"Don't forget your first assignment that's due tomorrow!" Mrs. Green shouted over the gaggle of students fighting for the door. "You must do it together, so find time to meet after school or online!"

"See you after school, Rocks?" CeCe asked, picking up her things.

"Uh, what?" Rocky asked, taken aback. "What did you call me?"

CeCe grinned. "Rocks. Do you like it? From Rocky."

Rocky wasn't sure, but didn't have time to think too long on it. She merely nodded and then said, "Yeah, see you later at my house?"

CeCe ran her fingers through her hair, nodding.

—

Mrs. Green had given a mountain of assignments for the sugar baby groups, one that was due nearly every single day. And so, nearly every single day, CeCe Jones showed up at the Blue house, ready to work on their shared assignments while being bombarded by Blue family members left and right.

Ty couldn't keep his nose out of the dining room to peer at CeCe at least once a day. Rocky's oldest cousin Jasmine had decided she should start incorporating CeCe's style into her own. Amy had decided that she and CeCe might as well be getting married for as much as she enjoyed talking to her. (Rocky had to admit that CeCe was pretty great with little cousins.) And day after day, CeCe Jones became more and more a part of the Blue family.

"Can you believe Mrs. Green gives us so many assignments?" Rocky asked one day, sorting through a new packet they had to complete. "It's intense!"

"Parenthood is intense," CeCe replied as she helped herself to some milk and one of the brownies that Mrs. Blue had left for them. "Obviously all these assignments are meant to be done together because raising kids is meant to be done together. Every day."

Rocky looked up at her partner, sort of surprised by such an intelligent answer.

"Could you just write that down so we can use it later?" Rocky asked.

CeCe shrugged her shoulders, apparently unaware that she was totally serious. Rocky put down her pencil and regarded her partner curiously.

"Don't be offended by this, but what grade are you getting in Mrs. Green's class right now?" Rocky asked. She kind of wondered if CeCe's demonstrated intelligence matched up with her actual school work.

CeCe didn't seem fazed one bit. "Um, I think a C. Not bad, I guess, since I'm late all the time."

It nearly broke Rocky's brain to think CeCe was fully aware that her tardiness affected her grade so much, but she didn't do anything about it.

"Why aren't you ever on time?" Rocky asked innocently. "Like, can't you get up earlier?"

For the first time ever, CeCe diverted her eyes away from Rocky as if embarrassed. She picked up another piece of brownie and shoved it in her mouth. Rocky, not one to push someone who was clearly uncomfortable, tried a different approach instead.

"I just wonder," she said carefully. "I guess… I guess I don't actually know very much about you."

CeCe dared to glance up, her curly red hair hanging over one shoulder.

"Okay, well," she answered. "What do you want to know?"

Rocky couldn't think of anything good, of course. What she really wanted to do was ask terribly personal questions that explained all of CeCe's off-the-wall behavior. But because she was an absolute coward that way, she took an entirely different direction instead.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Are you kidding me, Rocks?" CeCe, thankfully, was half-grinning.

"Sorry! I just - I don't have specific questions, I just… don't feel like I know you. You've been to my house like every other day the last two weeks, so I think you get the gist of my life."

"Are you saying you want to come over to my house?" CeCe asked. For the first time she seemed genuinely surprised, like she hadn't expected such a request.

"Uhm, I mean, I wasn't getting at that exactly, but - "

"Tomorrow we'll go to my house," CeCe said with finality. "No problem."

—

For some reason Rocky felt weird going to CeCe's house the next day. It might've been because it was a new place (Rocky sometimes had problems with new places) or that she still felt badly about making CeCe feel uncomfortable about her school habits. Either way, the feeling didn't die down any as she approached the house with CeCe's address on it.

Walking up the worn down front steps, Rocky carefully knocked on the door and waited. A long moment passed in which she wondered if CeCe had forgotten their arrangement, and she worried that CeCe was standing at her front door right then too. Or maybe CeCe had gotten held up at dance practice after school. She knocked again.

"Rocky!" She heard CeCe from somewhere above her. She stepped back and could see CeCe hanging out of an upstairs window.

"Come on in!" CeCe shouted. "The door should be unlocked! I'll be down in a second!"

Even with permission she felt guilty just walking into someone else's house. She stood in the entryway for a long time, waiting for CeCe. The house was way smaller than the houses in Rocky's neighborhood, and clearly much older as well. In fact, Rocky could almost see every part of the downstairs from where she stood, something that struck her oddly since she was so used to her house being so open and spacious. It was nearly claustrophobic.

A few seconds later and CeCe was bounding down the creaky stairway towards her.

"Sorry," CeCe apologized immediately. "My little brother needed help with something and my mom's still at work."

"Oh, is your dad away?" Rocky had asked the question innocently enough.

CeCe took a second to answer. "My parents are divorced," she said at last. "It's just me, my mom, and Flynn."

"Oh, gosh, sorry," Rocky replied. Why she couldn't have come to that conclusion herself before she opened her big fat mouth she had no idea.

"No worries," CeCe replied, easily enough. "Um, the dinner table is kind of full of stuff at the moment - Mom's working on taxes or something. Wanna go up to my room?"

"Yeah, sure," Rocky agreed and followed CeCe upstairs.

At the top of the landing they were immediately presented with a series of doors huddled around a small open space that served as hallway, though no one could really call it a hallway at all. In fact, just having two people standing in the space proved sort of tight - one could hardly turn around at all.

"That's my mom's room down there," CeCe explained, pointing. "There's Flynn's room. Bathroom over there if you need it. Here's my room."

She led Rocky through a door covered in scraps of paper and magazine photos of pop stars Rocky had never even heard of. Inside, CeCe's room had been painted a purple color and the poster decorating style permeated throughout. The room couldn't have been more than ten feet by ten feet, packed with all sorts of cd's, piles of clothes, and just about any other sort of junk a person would expect in a teenage girl's room. The difference being, of course, that Rocky's room was always picked up and her bed made, whereas CeCe's must've been the example mothers were thinking of when they compared their kids' rooms to tornado disaster areas.

"Uh, lemme just clear off my desk," CeCe said, relocating some books that had been stacked high on a small table in the corner. As she did so, Rocky could hear the front door opening again, followed by Flynn racing down the stairs to greet his mother.

"All right, what're we looking at today?" CeCe asked, gesturing to Rocky that she should go ahead and sit at the desk.

"Okay, we have an article to read about adoption in the United States," Rocky replied, pulling out her notebook and placing it on the desk. "Um, I think it covers a lot of demographic stuff, so we're supposed to write a response about what we've read."

"Cool," CeCe replied. She started to say something else but was immediately interrupted.

"CeCe!" Mrs. Jones' voice could be heard coming closer as she ascended the stairs.

"Yeah?" CeCe called back. The door to her room had still been cracked open, and Mrs. Jones pushed it a little more in order to peek in.

"Oh! You have someone over!" she said upon seeing Rocky there.

"This is Rocky, Mom," CeCe introduced. "We're working on a project together."

"Nice to meet you, Rocky," Mrs. Jones said, smiling. She turned back to CeCe. "Honey, I hate to interrupt you, but can you come help me real quick? It'll just be a second. Sorry," she added, apologetically.

"No problem," CeCe answered. "We haven't even started yet."

Mrs. Jones thanked her and immediately turned to go back down stairs.

"Be right back," CeCe assured Rocky, her hand on the door. "Hey, you want something to drink or anything? I think we have Sprite. Or water, of course."

"Um, yeah, Sprite's good," Rocky replied. "Thank you."

"No probs," CeCe answered, ducking out of the room. Rocky listened as she thudded down the stairs again.

Once again Rocky found herself idly looking around, taking in all the cluttery strangeness of CeCe's bedroom. She wasn't used to walls being collaged to death by photographs and posters of boy bands and stuff like that. Her mom would probably kill her if she tried that at home. She got up and took the few steps it required to go from one end of the room to the other, finally deciding to sit down on CeCe's unmade bed and wait.

For some reason Rocky felt really awkward sitting alone in CeCe's room. Well, Rocky felt really awkward pretty frequently, to be fair, but this was different. This was like, butterflies different. Almost like singing in front of church anxious, but still not quite that. She'd already embarrassed herself a few minutes ago about CeCe's dad situation, so she was scared she would say even more stupid things soon and CeCe would be offended and automatically declare her not her friend anymore and she'd never be able to go back to school ever again and her parents would have to send her to her aunt's in Florida.

Which kind of begged the question. Was CeCe Jones her friend?

Really, they were just doing this stupid project together, and in two week's time they'd turn in their essays and have no real reason to ever talk to one another again. Other than the time they spent with the sugar baby, their lives were worlds apart. This reality sinking in suddenly made Rocky inexplicably sad.

"Hey, why the long face, Rocks?"

CeCe's reappearance startled Rocky enough that she clutched her chest.

"I, uh… nothing. Just thinking."

"What about?" CeCe asked, plopping herself onto the bed next to Rocky and handing her the Sprite she'd promised. "Like nuclear war or something? Because you look devastated."

CeCe did her signature hair-flip thing and Rocky thought she might throw up. She'd gotten along so well with CeCe the last couple weeks that the thought that their friendship was probably on the downswing made every little quirk of CeCe's practically painful. She'd miss that, she realized, that hair-flip. And her stupid blue eyeliner and ripped skinny jeans. She still didn't understand it, but she'd miss that too. And somehow, sitting there, she didn't want to look at her anymore. Because every stupid inch of her stupid face just reminded her of the stupid reason they were even in the same stupid room together.

"I'm sorry," Rocky said shakily, suddenly getting to her feet. "I'm not… I think I need to go home."

CeCe cocked her head to one side, genuine concern overcoming her.

"You okay?" She asked. She flipped her hair again.

"I just… suddenly felt a little queasy, so… I'm sorry."

"Rocky."

The latter half of the conversation had happened at Rocky's back because she'd already taken several steps towards CeCe's bedroom door. But at the sound of her name, at the sound of CeCe calling her Rocky instead of Rocks, she'd frozen stiff with her hand lamely outstretched for the doorknob.

"Rocky."

CeCe's voice had lowered, but gotten closer. Smooth fingertips touched her elbow, a feeling that was both pleasant and chilling at the same time. A warm brush of breath snuck across her cheek, and CeCe had only returned to her vision for a second before her eyes suddenly closed. Closed, like a natural reflex or something. And a weird, soft, damp, tingling sensation met her lips, something she recognized as a kiss, but at the same time something she didn't recognize at all. It didn't last long enough for her to figure it out, and her eyes came open again to find two dark brown ones looking back hopefully.

She had heard of time standing still, but never understood it until that very moment. This moment when she'd forgotten words, like language wasn't even a thing, and CeCe must have too, and maybe she was being a little dramatic, but everything in the whole dang world was just really, really beautiful at this exact point in time of the universe.

Hard knocking on the door made her nearly tumble over with fright into CeCe's arms.

"CeCe!" Flynn was shouting as he pushed open the door. "Time for dinner. This girl staying?" He stared between his sister and Rocky.

The half-cocky smile returned to CeCe's lips and she brushed her hair back, asking, "You wanna stay for dinner?"

All Rocky could manage to do was nod.

 **Don't forget to review! ?**


	4. Chapter 4

Sunday morning, Rocky tried her best not to reveal too much about the worn out messenger bag she was suddenly sporting at church. No one really asked about it, thankfully, and she'd been able to prop it near her feet in the pew where she could still keep an eye on it. She definitely thanked God that day that Bocephus couldn't actually cry or anything like that.

But Rocky's perspective had totally flipped anyway. Something terrible had obviously happened to the Jones' and it killed her not knowing what was going on. As soon as she got home she tried calling CeCe to find out if she was okay, if something had happened to her mom or something. She got no answer all afternoon, and after a while CeCe's mailbox was completely full. She couldn't even leave a message.

She completed their assignment for Monday on her own, putting both hers and CeCe's name at the top. She began outlining their final paper which would be due soon. She cleaned her room, washed the dishes, and volunteered to take the trash out even though it was Ty's turn. But none of it distracted her from wondering what CeCe was doing at the same time; probably nothing as normal as what she'd done all day.

Monday morning moved slowly, and with a tremendous amount of solemnity she packed up her school things and Bo's bag and headed out to the bus stop. She half-hoped that she'd see CeCe there, though that didn't make sense since they didn't even live in the same neighborhood. CeCe was absent from Mrs. Green's class and Rocky didn't see her at lunch either. Part of her wanted to approach Tinka and ask about CeCe, but she never had the courage.

By Tuesday morning, Rocky was really worried. Not about the project or any assignments - she could totally do those on her own if she had to. But she hadn't heard from CeCe, and her voicemail was still full when she called so she figured she hadn't been checking her phone lately either.

It came as a bit of a surprise then when at 8:23, CeCe strolled into Mrs. Green's class as if it were any regular day of her being tardy.

"Sorry I'm late," she muttered as she slipped into her desk next to Rocky. "I had to help Flynn get ready for school this morning."

Rocky sat frozen for a long moment, first of all realizing that that had probably been the reason CeCe was late every single day of the year; she had to get her brother to school because her mom left really early for work. But secondly, of course, Rocky was completely surprised by this nonchalant entrance.

"Where have you been?" Rocky asked as the rest of the room was working in pairs. "I've called you like a thousand times. What happened on Saturday?"

CeCe closed her eyes momentarily as if gathering herself before looking up at Rocky. Dark circles framed her tired eyes, and for once it wasn't smeared makeup.

"Um, my brother had to go to the hospital," she answered quietly, absently fingering the corner of her worksheet.

"What?" Rocky said as loudly as she dared in the semi-quiet room. "Flynn? Is he okay?"

"No," CeCe answered, solemnly. "I have another brother, a half-brother, he's older," she explained. "He's married and everything. Anyway, he has brain cancer."

Rocky might've fallen over if she hadn't already been sitting down.

"Oh my gosh!" she said, clasping one hand over her mouth. "What… is he… oh my gosh."

"He lives a pretty normal life," CeCe answered, apparently used to responding to such reactions. "Just, this weekend was a bit rough, so they took him in for some treatment. He's okay now."

It didn't seem to Rocky like anyone with brain cancer could suddenly be okay after two days at the hospital.

"I'm so sorry," Rocky replied. "Just… gosh."

"It's okay," CeCe said again, looking down at her worksheet. "What're we doing today?"

Rocky couldn't imagine talking about anything else, but clearly CeCe needed the distraction. It was probably why she was at school at all. And maybe CeCe's older brother was okay, Rocky didn't really know anything about the situation after all.

"Today's topic is problems with childcare," Rocky answered flatly. "We don't have to do it if you don't want to. We've gotten full points on everything, it won't hurt us."

But CeCe was already scanning the half-page of reading, underlining things as she went along. Rocky couldn't help but feel terrible.

CeCe's POV

CeCe couldn't keep track of what day it was all week, which explained why she was surprised when Friday rolled around. One more day of school to get through and then she could just sleep the entire weekend away if she wanted to.

And she did want to.

Hearing Flynn crashing around in the kitchen, she forced herself out of bed and out of her room just in time to catch her brother lining up about five frying pans on the stove with a carton of eggs teetering awfully close to the edge of the counter.

"What are you doing?" CeCe demanded, rushing over to turn off all the burners.

"Mom said I could make breakfast," Flynn explained.

Flynn was almost ten, so it wasn't totally insane to think he could do it, but she still seemed baffled by his decision to do this on a school morning.

"Flynn, it's 7:30, we don't have time for this," CeCe said sternly as Flynn's face slowly drooped. "Besides, she probably meant like oatmeal or something."

"She said I could do it," Flynn tried again, but his tone of voice showed he knew he'd been defeated.

"Maybe tomorrow, buddy," CeCe offered, genuinely disappointed that she had to burst Flynn's bubble. "You gotta get dressed right now."

"Mkay," Flynn sighed, padding out of the kitchen in his too-short pajama bottoms.

CeCe shook her head as she started to put the pans away. As she placed the eggs back into the fridge she noticed a note her mom had left for her under a Mickey Mouse magnet.

CeCe, can you please go to the grocery store after school and get some things - list below. You can keep the change as always. Love, Mom.

A twenty dollar bill had been attached to the note, and she shoved both items into her pocket. Luckily, she had nothing else going on after school that day, not even meeting with Rocky. Rocky had been panicky all week, jumping every second to relieve CeCe of any work that had to be done. She had tried to resist her incessant offers of help until finally she agreed that they'd take a break Friday afternoon since it was the weekend.

It'd been exactly the thing she'd hoped to avoid this year, however, the inevitable overcompensation of people feeling sorry for her because of Logan. She didn't like special treatment and she didn't like not pulling her weight just because her family had a few difficulties. Everyone had difficulties in life, so she didn't see why she had to be treated any differently.

Of course, the energetic compassion that came from Rocky was hard not to appreciate, and it really warmed her heart that she plunged full-force into helping other people. Rocky's absolutely honest being was one of many reasons why CeCe had dared to kiss her the week before.

Which reminded her that they hadn't had a chance to talk about it all, and by now she could only imagine that Rocky was too freaked out to even think about it. It was probably for the best anyway; CeCe didn't need the added stress in her life at the moment. That's the reason she had sent Gunther a breakup text two nights ago.

Getting Flynn out the door was difficult as usual. The kid was just too distracted by his random thoughts to get his shoes tied in a timely manner, and as usual by the time she gave her little brother a ride on her bike to the middle school, she was a half an hour late for school herself.

For all of first period, Rocky yammered non-stop about things that CeCe couldn't remember even moments later. The whole morning ended up being a total blur, in fact. Bo had been traded off to her and that was seriously all she could remember had happened all day. She vaguely understood that Rocky would come by after church on Sunday to pick Bo up, and that was it.

Thankfully, CeCe remembered her mom wanted her to go the store, which took her a little out of her normal path home from school. She'd only asked for a few basic things, but CeCe totally misjudged how all the items would fit on her bike rack along with all her school junk too. Arranging everything as well as she could manage, she hopped back on her bike in somewhat of a hurry, remembering that Flynn was probably already home from school and that she shouldn't leave him alone for too much longer.

CeCe had had a paper route a few years back, which helped in deciding the most efficient way back home. She knew the streets like the back of her hand, so deciding to go down the busy Morrison Street was a no-brainer. She'd have to be careful, but it was definitely the quickest route back to her house.

She'd been making good time, amusing herself by trying to recall all the families who lived on Morrison to whom she'd delivered newspapers as a kid when she rolled up to 17th Street, a green light in her favor to keep her sailing on through to home without having to stop.

Suddenly, just as she started across the crosswalk, a car flew through the intersection without stopping at the light, causing CeCe to slam on her brakes as hard as she could. Despite her best efforts, she could only swerve into Mrs. Hamilton's rose bushes, sending her backpack and everything else strapped to the bike rack flying out into the street. The screeching tires and retreating engine sound told her that the driver hadn't bothered to see if she was alive or dead, but luckily she seemed fine other than a few scratches from rose thorns. As the irresponsible driver sped away, she got up, dusted off her shirt and cursed into the street.

Turning, she first saw that the paint on her sparkly bike had been badly damaged. This alone angered her enough to yell because she'd custom painted the thing only a month before. But it took her a second to realize that everything she'd been carrying had fallen off the bike as well; her backpack, books, the groceries her mom had asked her to get, and…

Grainy white sugar covered the street, sparkling like frost on a cold November morning. CeCe stared for a long time, frozen in shock and unsure what she should do. Her hand slipped into her back pocket, fingers gripping her phone. She'd navigated to Rocky's phone number but couldn't bring herself to press "dial".

Little Bocephus was dead.


	5. Chapter 5

CeCe sat on the edge of her bed for a long time, brooding. She's stormed past her brother, dropping what remained of the salvageable groceries on the dining room table and ignoring Flynn calling after her.

"CeCe, what happened? Are you bleeding?"

She was bleeding, but she'd taken the stairs two at a time up to her room, slamming the door behind her anyway. She'd been sitting on her bed for about two minutes (all the while ignoring Flynn knocking on her door) before it completely registered how much her head was pounding. She might have hit her head or something, and there was definitely a scrape on her cheek, but the most terrifying thing was still the realization of what had happened, of what she'd done.

And now she had to call Rocky. Because the longer she waited the worse it would be. If nothing else, she knew by now that Rocky would ask too many questions, like when it had happened and how. She could already hear her asking why she'd taken so long to call her, and it'd only been about thirty minutes.

Taking a deep breath, CeCe took out her phone again, attempting to reconstruct the facts in her mind. Ultimately, only a bag of sugar had been lost, not a big deal, right? It wasn't actually life and death. And Mrs. Green already explained that in case of a tragedy, there was an alternate assignment in order to still earn full points. So it wasn't a problem. She just had to tell Rocky that their assignment had changed.

Except that Rocky had cared more than anything for Bocephus and taken every detail with absolute seriousness. Again Rocky's number stared up at CeCe through her darkening room and all she wanted to do was run away.

She punched "dial" anyway. It only rang one and a half times before Rocky answered.

"Hi, I'm glad you called. I was just thinking that if I do the dishes for Ty for a week he miiiight agree to watch Bo next Wednesday…"

CeCe sighed, casting her eyes to the ceiling. The pop idol posters that papered the entire space didn't help distract her from the inevitable news she'd have to deliver. Rocky hadn't seemed to notice CeCe's silence, however, and was still talking about mowing the lawn for her brother as a part of her master plan of trade-off babysitting.

"Rocks."

"... and of course Mom keeps reminding me she'll babysit anytime, but I don't want to take advantage, you know? That seems responsible and -"

"Rocks."

"... but of course, I haven't even thought about your family, so maybe I'm just overthinking it…"

"ROCKY!"

CeCe could only imagine the startled look that must've accompanied the sudden dead silence that fell on the other end of the line. She knew she'd been sharp, but there was just no other way to get that girl to shut up once she was on a roll.

"Um, is something wrong?" Rocky asked timidly.

"Sorry," CeCe mumbled. "But yeah."

"What's… what's happening?"

CeCe sighed again, deciding she just needed to say it.

"Bocephus is dead."

There was a beat, and then shuffling.

"Wh… what?"

"Rocky, Bo is dead, I'm sorry."

"What are you saying?" Rocky asked. It was apparent she was trying to keep it together, but her rising voice betrayed her.

"I had to go to the store for my mom after school. So I was coming home from a different direction and had to go down Morrison, you know? And I forgot how busy it can be down there and I was coming through the last intersection when this asshole just flew through there and nearly ran me over. Luckily, I was able to steer off the road, but all the groceries… my books, and… and Bo went flying into the street."

An audible gasp broke the breathless silence, and CeCe stopped talking. She didn't want to say anything else and possibly couldn't.

"So… where… where is Bo now?"

Her eyes fell closed as she answered. "Basically all over the intersection of Morrison and 17th."

"How…"

"Well, I just said how."

"How could you do this?" Rocky suddenly sounded indignant.

It took CeCe a second to understand Rocky's tone of voice.

"What! What do you mean how could I do this? It was an accident!"

"Did you strap him in properly? Were you using the padded backpack like we talked about?"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, and she'd had just about enough of Rocky's safety precaution talks.

"Rocky, look. There was hardly any room on my bike rack. I put him on as well as I could. And I almost died! Like, did you miss that part?"

Rocky huffed - actually huffed - and replied, "And Bo did die."

CeCe didn't know what else to say. The line was silent for a long time before Rocky finally said, "I have to go. I have to pray before I go to bed."

There wasn't even a possibility for CeCe to say goodbye before the click rang in her ear.

Rocky POV

Rocky couldn't manage to get herself up in the morning. She ignored her alarm for over an hour, which meant once she finally pulled herself out of bed she didn't have time for running or for a shower. It didn't matter. She was pretty close to not going to school at all. Twenty minutes of glowering at the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling, however, brought her to the conclusion that if she wasn't actually sick she should go. And she wasn't, of course, she just had a broken heart was all.

She managed to get dressed in time to run downstairs and grab her lunch and an apple before running out the door. She'd very nearly forgotten to kiss her mom goodbye if she hadn't intercepted her at the door.

"Are you okay, sweetie? You're never late."

Rocky managed to mumble some ridiculous excuse about not sleeping well (it wasn't exactly a lie) before slipping out the door, only to make it to the bus stop at about 7:24 and thirty seconds. She was still panting as the school bus door creaked open towards her.

Though she ended up being perfectly on time for school, Rocky didn't want to go into first period. That was home economics, after all, and she wasn't sure she was ready to see CeCe's stupid face so soon. She was liable to punch her or some other uncharacteristic thing she wouldn't usually do.

Still, she went into class, head down so she wouldn't accidentally make eye contact with anyone.

Mrs. Green got on with class in the usual way. Though Rocky usually didn't pay a lot of attention to roll call since she was at the very top of the list, she for the first time noticed Mrs. Green saying, "Jones. Not here? Rocky, do you know if CeCe's running late?"

Rocky glanced up from her notebook, surely looking surprised. Why on earth would she know that? CeCe was always late anyway, so it wasn't exactly a mystery. She cleared her throat.

"I, uh, not that I know of?"

"Okay," Mrs. Green replied, marking the roll call sheet. "Just thought since you were partners you'd know something. Lewis?"

Thirty-five minutes of class rolled by and CeCe still hadn't shown up. Obviously she was too embarrassed to face Rocky, which gave her a slightly smug attitude about the whole thing. Yes, she'd thought about skipping school, but she wasn't so irresponsible. And she could do without seeing CeCe anyway.

The last few minutes of class, Mrs. Green allowed everyone to work on homework as she wandered around checking on people's assignments. When she got to Rocky she looked concerned.

"Are you okay today, Rocky?"

"What?" she asked, genuinely surprised by her question.

"You look a little tired. Your hair's all flat."

Rocky stroked her hair as she said, "Oh, I got up kind of late this morning."

Mrs. Green nodded understandingly. "Where's little Bocephus this morning? You know he's supposed to come to class with you."

All at once Rocky felt her heart plummet into her stomach. Not only did she feel guilty that she'd forgotten that tiny detail, but by the reminder that Bo didn't even exist anymore. He'd burst into a million pieces.

"Um, CeCe had him over the weekend," Rocky said. "So… so I guess she's still got him."

Mrs. Green smiled and nodded again. Rocky felt terrible. Had that been a lie? She decided it probably counted as one, which made it even worse. She knew perfectly well where Bocephus was, and it wasn't in care of CeCe Jones.

"Okay, well, make sure to check in with her after school, all right? If CeCe's sick, you'd better get ahold of Bo so you can take care of him instead."

Mrs. Green patted her shoulder and turned away to talk to someone else. All Rocky could do was sink down in her chair.


	6. Chapter 6

6

When Rocky was mad, she cleaned. Scrubbing surfaces was her favorite thing, but Ty was on kitchen duty this week and had already done it all. Other than picking up a couple stray socks on the floor, her own room was tidy, so all she could really do was plop herself down in the beanbag chair by her window and cross her arms tightly over her chest.

She was so mad. How could CeCe have been so stupid? How could she have just ruined their sugar baby like that? Images of little Bo filled her mind as she wondered if she'd need to arrange a funeral.

At first she didn't notice the light nicks against her window pane until a loud thunk startled her out of her angry thoughts. For a moment she wondered if a bird had hit the window, but it was dark out so that couldn't have been it. Another clatter against the glass and Rocky was on her feet, hands pressed against the window. The glare from the neighbor's garage light obscured everything, so she unlocked the window and pushed it up. As soon as she hung her head out, she had to dodge a small rock hurtling towards her face.

"Hey!"

"Sorry! I didn't know you were there. I can't really see."

Rocky rolled her eyes, tempted to just slam the window back closed. CeCe was standing in the side yard like she'd suddenly been cast in Say Anything or something.

"What are you doing?" Rocky hissed. "Forget how doors work?"

"Are your parents gonna let me in at 11pm?"

Rocky pursed her lips, annoyed that CeCe was right, though she'd not been totally aware it was quite that late.

"Go away!" Rocky whispered loudly.

"I have something for you!"

"You can give it to me at school tomorrow. Good night!"

She made to close the window for real this time, but CeCe persisted.

"I can't give it to you at school, it has to be now. Will you come down?"

Sighing, Rocky sat back down on the beanbag chair, resting her chin on the window sill. She wondered if CeCe would just stand there all night if she didn't at least let her get out what she'd come to say. Probably. CeCe Jones seemed like that kind of girl.

"Fine," she relented, hooking her fingers on the window frame. "I'll be right there."

Luckily, the rest of the family had gone to bed, but that also meant she'd have to sneak down the stairs, unlock the front door, and ease it open ever so softly. CeCe had already made her way around to the front porch. In the dark she was nearly imperceptible given her dark clothes and boots. She'd also brought her backpack as if it were a regular day after school or something.

"Hey," CeCe greeted, obviously trying to sound friendly. "Nice pajamas."

"What do you want?" Rocky replied bitterly, tugging at the cuffs of her pink striped pajama shirt.

"I brought you something," CeCe said, gesturing to her backpack. "Um, can we go sit somewhere?"

"Whatever," Rocky said, waving a dismissive hand in the air. "Why not? I've already snuck out of the house, we might as well go break some laws or something while we're at it."

Even in the dark, she could perceive CeCe's hurt expression.

"Rocks, I'm sorry you're mad."

"Please stop calling me Rocks," Rocky snipped. "And I wouldn't be mad if you hadn't killed our baby."

"Rocky," CeCe said, sounding heartbroken. "I didn't… I didn't do it on purpose. You know I didn't. It was an accident."

"I don't even want to say it again," Rocky said, "but you're so careless, I can't believe it. Though I don't know why I'm surprised, actually."

Now CeCe's eyes matched her hurt tone of voice. "What… what's that supposed to mean?"

Rocky didn't want to answer, mostly because she felt the answer was so obvious. CeCe was a girl who never planned anything, who turned homework in late, whose student calendar was as crisp and unused as the day it'd been issued to her. So obviously - obviously - this was a girl who was gonna mess stuff up, who didn't take precautions. Rocky had trusted her, but it still happened.

"Nothing," Rocky murmured, wrapping her arms around her middle. "Are we done here? It's getting cold and I have to be up in five hours."

CeCe still looked sheepish, but she obliged by slipping her backpack off onto the porch swing and opening it up. Carefully, she pulled out something that looked so terribly familiar that Rocky gasped when she saw it: a five pound bag of sugar with green crinkle-cut hair and diamond-blue eyes.

"What…" Rocky muttered breathlessly. "What is that?"

"I stayed home today 'cause I was remaking Bo," CeCe replied quietly. "I tried to make him just like the original, but I might have forgotten a couple things. But I think he'll pass."

Rocky couldn't believe her eyes. She also couldn't believe the contradicting feelings she was experiencing. Making a new sugar baby was so obviously against the rules, yet the fact that CeCe had stayed home from school touched her as well. It was confusing to say the least.

"We can't… we can't take… that," Rocky pointed at Bo #2, "to school with us. Are you crazy? I've never cheated a day in my life."

CeCe swallowed hard, clutching poor little Bo #2 to her chest. "Please don't be mad, Rocky. I was just… I just wanted to fix everything."

"Please just take that back home and make a cake with it or something." Rocky's words were firm, but not as harsh as before.

"I'm sorry, Rocky," CeCe said again.

Rocky sighed. "It's okay," she relented. "We'll tell Mrs. Green what happened in the morning. Go home and get some sleep."

Perhaps the saddest thing Rocky Blue had ever seen in her young life was the sight of CeCe Jones descending the steps of the front porch, backpack over one shoulder, sugar sack clutched in one hand with the full moon shining through her red flyaway hair.


End file.
